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UK government targets VPNs in new online safety consultation as Lords vote for ban
(www.techradar.com)
this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2026
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I lived in the UK as an EU immigrant before Brexit and I can tell you that they were already well on their way before that.
Just go have a look at the Stasi-like civil society done in the UK as shown by the Snowden Revelations: it was actually worse than the US and, unlike in the US, none of it was rolled-back in the UK and instead new laws were passed to make the whole thing retroactivelly legal.
This is far from the only way in which Britain hasn't really been a proper Democratic nation for quite a while (for example, did you know they have a Press Censorship system called "D-Notices" or that there is not right to legal counsel when interrogated at a border crossing?).
Brexit was not the cause of Britain's increased authoritarianism, it was a consequence of it (though indirectly, due to things like Press ownership concentration, the BBC to quite an extend a Propaganda outlet for the party in government and the pain of the Austerity that was chosen in the aftermath of of the 2008 Crash as a way to pay for the costs of saving the wealth of the rich and the bonuses of bankers).
It's just that unlike in places like the US or Hungary, the culture of the elites gives a huge importance to "keeping appearences" (hence the "English gentleman" stereotype, which at least nowadays is all about how one presents oneself and not at all about morals, ethics or honor) so you get a posh kind of Fascist rather than the raging strongman populist style of fascist you get in other countries. Also Britain is far more likely to hide the use of force for oppression with "It's the Law" and "Proper procedure" than the others - again a form of managing appearances.